Review #1: The Heir by Kiera Cass

Spoiler Warning: The review contains spoilers for the first three books in the Selection series.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Synopsis: Years after America Singer completed her selection, beating out 34 other girls to win the heart of Maxon Schraeve her daughter is suddenly standing in her shoes.

When the kingdom that America’s first daughter, Eadlyn, is going to eventually inherit is experiencing unrest, her desperate parents are willing to do anything to distract their people from the rebellion and unhappiness within their country. They decide that entertaining their people with a Selection is the only way to keep it from falling apart. The only problem? Eadlyn has no interest in it at all.

Suddenly she’s faced with the task of meeting, dating, and eliminating 35 boys in order to find a future husband. Though stubborn Eadlyn wants none of it, we’re left to wonder if true love can find you even when you’re not looking for it.

The Heir was definitely one of my most anticipated books of 2015. I was more than a little surprised when Kiera announced that there were going to be two more books, especially when The One seemed to provide the trilogy with a satisfying ending (a trilogy having a satisfying ending? Shocking, I know). Needless to say I was slightly nervous going into this book – though excited – because I was worried that this book was just going to be dragging the series out as a ploy to get more money. Instead, as far as I’m concerned, Kiera Cass has pulled a Cassandra Clare and by extending her series she has only gone to improve it.

Yes, that’s right. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and although this seems to be a very unpopular opinion I will go as far as to say that this was my favorite book in the series so far, for many reasons. For me, in the first three books of the series the “love triangle” was very one sided. You could be Team Maxon or Team Aspen for about as long as the first book but after a while it become very clear who she is going to end up with. By the end of this book, however, America is involved in a love pentagon as far as my ships are concerned, and I’m not even sure what team I’m on yet.

This book also felt really fast-paced. I think that’s definitely one of Kiera Cass’s biggest strengths. She does a great job of writing the Selection Series like it’s a TV show almost, and you always want to watch the next episode and watch the drama play out. I flew through this almost 400-page book in just one day. And now that we’re on the subject of ending the book…

The ending of the book! No spoilers, of course, but man. That was definitely one heck of a way to end your book, and an especially evil way to especially since the next book in the series doesn’t have a title, cover, or release date yet. I wouldn’t say it left me dying to know what happens next… more like just dying. Dying and emotionally unstable and not sure if I could handle anymore. (In the best way possible, of course)

Now that I’ve covered the basic positives of this book, there were a couple negatives that bothered me throughout the book, although they weren’t bad enough in my opinion to take away from the five star rating:

Eadlyn, who narrates the story, did get on my nerves. She seemed to be a little bit self-centered and she made some pretty stupid decisions. Of course, these things get better as she grows as a person, but it did make for some cringe-inducing scenes throughout the beginning of the book. My second problem with Eadlyn was that I feel like Kiera Cass was really trying to turn her into a strong, independent character but really ended up creating someone who was rude and standoffish towards other really nice characters.

My second and only other issue isn’t really an issue as much as it is something that was different than I expected and I was slightly disappointed by, and that was America and Maxon. I knew going into this book that it was going to be told from a different point of view than we were used to with America but I didn’t realize how little America would really be involved in the story. If you’re hoping for this book to include more of the cutesy romance scenes between America and Maxon that we got in the first three books, sorry. There really isn’t much of that besides reminiscing on old scenes that we already read about in the other books. Of course there’s lots of cute new romances going on, but America and Maxon don’t even really seem like the same characters to me. Yes, it’s twenty years later and they’re stressed about the events in the books, but when Eadlyn was having a conversation with “Mom” I would often have to stop and remind myself that that was America. The personalities and overall feeling of America and Maxon changed for me, which was disappointing because they’re such great characters.

Overall, I think that if you enjoyed the first three books in the series you should definitely continue on even though this book is not a direct continuation of the past story we knew. I look forward to reading the next book, Untitled, when it comes out on Not Yet Determined. 😉

Cover Review: It’s pretty, it matches the other covers in the series, so it’s good with me.

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13 thoughts on “Review #1: The Heir by Kiera Cass”

Can’t wait to read this series! I can’t read too much of your review due to spoilers but I’m glad to have at least found you liked it and that it’s fast paced! Following you now via feedly and looking forward to more reviews!

Thank you so much! I’m almost jealous of you knowing that you haven’t read the series yet and you get to experience it for the first time. 🙂 They’re definitely fun reads – I can’t wait to hear what you think of them!

Yeah! I totally agree with you! I really loved this book as well, despite the negative reviews that it’s received. I also wish there were a bit more romantic scenes between America and Maxon! Great review! 🙂

I think you are the very first person to give this 5/5 stars! Everyone complains that this is not good enough, but I can’t wait to read it for myself 🙂 Hmm, no America and Maxon? Maybe I shall pass for a while. I still haven’t read Elite so I think I’ll finish the trilogy first and then get started on this. Hopefully I like it as much as you did 😀

Great review! I’m just about near the end of this and I’m still having a difficult time liking Eadlyn.😕 Except for how she is with Henri, I can’t stand the way she treats other people. Grr. It’s so frustrating! That said however, I am enjoying the way the author has continued building this world, and it’s interesting to see that problems continue even though the caste system has been abolished.

Yeah, I can understand your frustrations with Eadlyn. She’s can be pretty aggravating as a character but definitely entertaining to read about what with all the drama she causes! I feel like there is definitely more politics in this book than there was in the past few, which I really enjoyed. I hope you enjoy the rest of the book!

Well, I just finished and I’m still aggravated with her, but I loved the letter that her twin left her. Hopefully that and her America’s heart attack will wake her up. Speaking of which, I did not see that coming!

[…] to catch up on my previous thoughts about this book and its predecessors, check out my review for The Heir, my (spot-on) cover predictions, and my Waiting on Wednesday featuring this lovely book before it […]